This year’s Keller Williams Mega Camp was a roaring success, both for the Placester team and for the thousands of associates and market center leaders in attendance. KW members had the chance to attend seminars and network with peers, we had the opportunity to chat with many of these individuals about their experiences with Placester’s real estate websites and marketing tools.

Read on to learn how some of these folks make the most of our IDX sites and real estate marketing solutions, and watch our video featuring a few select KW members.

Placester: Your team has just gotten started with Placester. What do they think so far?

Jim Jacobus: My experience with websites is that so many of our agents have websites they got in 2010 and just don’t cut it anymore. I love website stuff, and your product looks outstanding. Just the aesthetics are outstanding. But our agents are actually able to take it and get it up and running and start using it right off the bat, and we really love that, because now they’ve got something that looks modern for their clients to land on.

P: What’s next for your team in terms of their online marketing and their websites?

JJ: That’s the $20-million-dollar question, because we got them out of looking like [their websites] were in the Stone Age and they look like they’re modern, but if you don’t do something with that website, a static website’s just not going to get it. You need to make it organic with blogging, video, and stuff like that, so we’re really looking to [Placester] to help us take them to that next step, to that next level.

P: What’s your advice to others who maybe haven’t made the leap to Placester?

JJ: It’s kind of like having a Ferrari and leaving it in the garage and not driving it. I mean, it looks great and everything, but you’re not actually getting the function out of it. To have a Placester website you don’t upgrade where you’re actually blogging and using some kind of lead nurture systems and stuff like that … it’s a waste of money and a waste of time, as far as I’m concerned. If you’re out there and you have a Placester site, learn from [them] and how you can turn it into a tool that’s going to bring you leads and help you build your business.

Mylissa Lanning of Keller Williams Group One in Reno, Nevada

Placester: We understand you’ve been struggling a bit with your website and then you came by our booth. Tell us a bit about your story.

Mylissa Lanning: We’re a really small market area of about 18,000 people, and so the IDX feed has been a real struggle. We’ve been waiting since March [to integrate with our Placester sites]. We come here [to Placester’s Mega Camp booth], and in 10 minutes, [you] have it fixed.

P: Our tech team did a good job in helping solve your IDX problem?

ML: Yes, very good job. Extremely patient. You understood why I was cranky, and I was a little untrusting because of my issues.

P: So what would you say to other KW Associates who have yet to get started with their Placester sites?

ML: Definitely give it a try. [The support team] was very friendly, super helpful. I’ve been in the business a long time and I’ve talked to a lot of tech people. Honestly, [Placester team member David St. George] is the nicest young man I’ve talked to. I mean, he was extremely patient, and at my age is nice.

Placester: Tell us about what you’ve done traditionally with your agency’s website and what you’re doing now with Placester.

Rick Bisson: We’ve been with Keller Williams for about 10 years, and it’s our only agency we’ve been involved with. When the Placester announcement came out, we were in a place where we really needed to upgrade our website. [My son] Benjamin picked [Placester] up and ran with it and exposed us to opportunities we’ve been looking for in other places that would’ve cost us a lot more money and a lot more effort and felt like less control. He just latched on [to the site], and the rest is history.

P: Benjamin, it sounds like you’ve been pretty exposed to our technology now. What do you think so far?

Benjamin Bisson: You know, I came to my parents and said, ‘We need to pay for something. We need to go out there and pay for some sort of web-building and lead gen service. We’re behind the curve.’ And we looked into that, and it was going to be about $1,500 to $2,000 per month. When Placester launched for KW, I went to a course and said, ‘I’ll give it a try.’ So I built our site before I went to the course and said, ‘No way — we’re not paying for anything else. This is going to be it for us.’

P: What’s your favorite feature? And what would you like to see in the product?

BB: I think being able to create so many pages with a template already built, you know, I don’t need to worry about coding style sheets or anything like that. I have my template built, and I can really work on putting out content, building website pages for my properties, and having a blog that’s already beautiful that I can just work on creating unique content rather than focusing on [building out the site itself].

P: Rick, what are your thoughts about the site to this point?

RB: We had content. We didn’t have a place to display it properly. So that was our biggest challenge, because we had been doing excellent photography, video, aerial drones as well, and to have a place to put those — a blog, virtual tours — and to put that in there, all in one place, and be able to build it out is just what everyone needs. … It really has put us on the map. This has really caused us to get a lot of attention … from our client base and potential clients.

Placester: Tell us a little bit about your real estate business.

Samantha Moore: I’ve been a licensed Realtor for about 10 years now. I’m now at a Market Center in Beaumont, Texas. I’m the Director of Agent Services there, so I help all of our agents with their technology and setting up their Placester websites.

P: What do you and your agents think so far about our websites?

SM: They love it. Everyone is taken aback by how easy it is and how agent-friendly everything is and how quick it is to set it up. It doesn’t take much thinking [to get going]. … If you’re not very tech-savvy, it is very quick, easy to do, and it’s really made a difference in [all of my agents’] lead capturing and branding their business. It’s been great.

P: Any tips for fellow KW members on getting started with their Placester sites today?

SM: If you’re not already on Placester, you need to get on Placester. Go ahead, start setting up your website, and if there are problems [you encounter], there are so many tutorials and so many videos that Placester has and offers. Also, the tech support has been tremendous and helped with everything.

Learn more about our IDX real estate websites today by contacting us at sales@placester.com or 800-728-8391.

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I'm the Sr. Content Creator for Placester, where I educate real estate professionals about modern marketing and, in turn, help agents and brokers make the most of their online presence, earn more traffic, and generate more leads and business.